Doctor Who [7]

Impressive visuals

I think you might have found the right forum Bluebottle  



Agreed Figg- looks like the BBC have actually cracked open the biscuit tin this time and spent the petty cash!  

guess theres no choice seing as its in the big screen

I have to admit I still fully expected them to knock it out on the cheap.

The BBC must hate Doctor Who- it makes them shed loads of money but they loathe scifi (which has always seemed odd to me as from the 50's live broadcast of 1984, to Quatermass, Red Dwarf and Who a lot of their most successful shows have been scifi- but they just dont seem to like, or think it worthy enough, of spending tax payers money on when they could be spending it on Eastenders   )

It's good that they are spending money on it, it really is different to the shoestring it was run on back in the day.



I think it's a bit of a shame though that they couldn't fit McGann into to the show. Would have given it a good tie in with the series before its reinvention and given McGann some well deserved redemption seeing as his stint in the role, at least on screen, was a bit of a failure. Don't think Moffat ever liked his portrayal though.

I heard Eccleston turned down an offer to be involved.

Yeah I suspect the original idea was for it to be about 9,10 and 11- all the Nuwho Doctors together- but Eccelston left the show with some serious problems with the production team (details of which have never really emerged) and said he would never go back to it, even though its an all new team now.
I imagine the Hurt Doctor was the idea Moffat came up with to solve the no 9th Doctor problem.

Okay, so, I like Doctor Who, but I'm not the biggest buff. So shouldn't Matt Smith be 12, David Tennant 11, and Chris Eccleston 10, and John Hurt 9? Or does John Hurt not count?

I always found myself more confused and frustrated by each series finale.  

Well we dont actually know where the Hurt one fits yet- but the assumption is he is the one who ended the Time War.

11 can be the 11th Doctor but it was actually his 12 regen.
He just doesnt count one of those regens as 'The Doctor' because the name he choose embodies certain ideals and principles that presumably the Hurt Doctor broke.

Spoiler:

I think the turn into event television that Russel T Davies made with the celebrity cameos and all that goes with it has to account for a lot of the rather confusing series finales. He was also a bit to fond of the conveniently placed reset button. I think Moffat has made several changes in a positive direction, but there still a bit of a "biggest ever" vibe hanging around the series finales.

I'm actually a little bit out of left field for a Doctor Who watcher as I started watching the 4th Doctors era after stumbling across Tom Bakers wonderfull performances on Have I got news for you. But with all the enthusiasm in this tread I find myself really looking forward to the 50th anniversary.

The stories (the stories that loom over an entire series) have become just too complicated for me. I usually enjoy the show, but most of the time I have no idea what's going on.

Like, did "Silence" "fall"? I don't remember if it did or not.

Not yet Bungo- Thats supposed to happen at the Fall of the 11th- which is this xmas assuming it refers to his regen.

Second longer trailer show on BBC tonight-




   

where is this from?

The Next Doctor- 10th xmas episode- with giant Cyberking stomping around Victorian London.
Not a personal favourite - the interactions with the 'other Doctor' are the best thing in it- the plot, villians ect are all pretty typical RTD fare.

but who is that other doctor?!

Take to long to explain- so heres the episode synopsis off wiki-

Synopsis

The Doctor lands his TARDIS in London on Christmas Eve, 1851. Overhearing cries for help, he encounters a man calling himself "The Doctor" and his companion Rosita, attempting to capture a Cybershade. The Cybershade escapes the trio. The Doctor, in talking to the man, comes to believe he may be a future incarnation of himself, who is suffering from amnesia. The man, dubbed the Next Doctor, takes the Doctor to a nearby house of a recently deceased reverend, believing him tied to a series of disappearances around London and the Cybershade. Inside, they discover a pair of Cybermen data-storage infostamps, which the Next Doctor recalls holding the night that he lost his memories. The two are attacked by Cybermen and the Doctor attempts to fight them off with a cutlass, but the Next Doctor kills them using electrical discharge from the infostamps.

The two Doctors regroup with Rosita at the Next Doctor's base, where the Next Doctor claims his "TARDIS" is located. The Doctor is surprised to find that "TARDIS" is a gas balloon - "Tethered Aerial Release Developed In Style", and comes to realise that the Next Doctor is really a human, Jackson Lake, the supposed first missing person. The Doctor suspects that Jackson had encountered the Cybermen and used the infostamps, containing knowledge of the Doctor, to ward them off after they killed his wife, with the side effect of infusing his mind with knowledge of the Doctor. As Jackson contemplates this revelation, the Doctor and Rosita set off to try to find the source of the Cybermen, while the Doctor theorises that they have somehow managed to escape the Void using a Dimension Vault (episode: "Doomsday").

The Doctor and Rosita enter an underground complex to find numerous children, pulled from workhouses around the city, at work under Cybermen guard. They encounter the bitter Miss Mercy Hartigan, the Cybermen's human ally that has brought the children to them for labour. The Doctor attempts to use a modified infostamp to overload the Cyberman's systems, but they instead repair it and identify the Doctor as their long-time foe, and prepare to "delete" him and Rosita. Jackson suddenly arrives, armed with several more infostamps which he uses to distract the Cybermen long enough for the three to escape. The Cybermen turn on Miss Hartigan, converting her into the controller for the "Cyberking", a giant mechanical Cyberman powered by the energy generated by the children. She originally tries to protest, saying that the Cybermen promised her she would never be converted, but The Cyberleader claims "That was designated a lie."

Jackson explains to the Doctor how he has started recovering his memories, and remembers encountering the Cybermen on moving into his new home. The Doctor considers that Jackson's home may be near the Cyberman base, and, there, discovers a second entrance into the Cyberman base. Inside, as the Cyberking starts to rise to the city, the three rescue the children, including Jackson's son, who was abducted in the initial attack and caused Jackson's fugue state. As the Cyberking starts to lay waste to the city, the Doctor uses Jackson's balloon to rise near the level of the Cyberking's control room in the machine's head, and tries to reason with Miss Hartigan, offering to take her and the Cybermen to a new planet. When she refuses, the Doctor uses the infostamps to sever her connection to the Cyberking, exposing her to the raw emotion of what she has done. The emotional feedback causes the other Cybermen to overload, and the Cyberking to start to topple. The Doctor uses the Dimensional Vault to draw the Cyberking and the remnants of the Cybermen into the Time Vortex, saving London.

In the aftermath, Jackson thanks the Doctor for what he has done and is allowed to see the interior of the true TARDIS, much to his pleasure. He then offers the Doctor a place at Christmas dinner. However, the Doctor initially refuses, but is convinced to stay as Jackson now says it is a demand. Before they depart, Jackson enquires after the Doctor's many companions, and the Doctor replies that in the end, they move on, and he is left alone. The pair then head off for a Christmas dinner in honour of those they have lost.

This sort of thing annoys me as it smacks of someone just trying to cash in-

'The BBC is being sued over the ownership of the copyright of the TARDIS, by the son of the author of the first Doctor Who story, Anthony Coburn.
Stef Coburn is claiming that his father created the TARDIS, seen in the very first episode of Doctor Who, An Unearthly Child, shown on 23 November 1963. He claims that he remembers his father getting the inspiration for the TARDIS during a walk on Wimbledon common. He believes the BBC is failing to give his father "the public recognition that should by rights always have been his due" for inventing the Tardis.'

Firstly, his father did not invent the TARDIS concept- not even close- in fact all he did was come up with the idea it would look like a Police Box, a common sight everywhere in the 1960's UK.

By the time he got involved the TARDIS was already worked out, all apart from its outside appearance which the draft concepts at the time merely described as something - "humdrum, say, .... such as a night-watchman's shelter"

On top of that his father never made any such claim his entire life, nor his widow, its only now the son is left that he has decided this might be a quick way to a fortune.

Now Im not saying it wasnt an inspired idea to choose a police box, but it was a small part in the huge collaboration of ideas that was Doctor Who- for his son to claim he invented the TARDIS and they want money for every appearance in the show since the start or else no TARDIS in the show is way off the mark  
Nor do I think they will have a hope in hell of winning the case.

Norc wrote:but who is that other doctor?!

oo love that episode its great fun. The opening sequence is my all time favourite episode opening for Nuwho. It captures how I would feel if I was with the Doctor in the 19th century.    It makes me go all giggly and girly.

I agree completely. The Police Box design was a far to generic design in the 60's to warrant that kind of protection. Not to say it hasn't become iconic over the years. Even if one accepted that he had come up with the design for the Tardis wich is also in dispute. So your right, there's about no chance that a court would side with him on the basis of that evidence.

The design of the Daleks raises a much more interesting discussion though. The BBC paid Terry Nation who wrote the original concept millions of punds over the years for their use. While the man who actually made the iconic design was a lowly bbc designer on a lowly bbc wage who never got a penny.

The Dalek issue is a more complicated one.

Thing is about ten years ago or so the Met tried to sue the BBC too, claiming the Police Box was their copyright- and they lost. And their claim seems better than this guys.

"o love that episode its great fun. "- Mrs Figg

There we shall have to disagree- as I said I like the interaction between the two 'doctors' but the overall plot, the workhouse children, the evil work house owner, the stupid Cyber-King ect was all just awful- no wonder Moff choose it to be one of the events eaten up by the cracks in time. Bit of writers wishful thinking there!

and I will have to disagree with you.
It has everything you want out of Who, rolicking great fun, steampunk baddies, sympathetic characters, great atmosphere. Its Brilliant. oh and Tennant. (both of them)

 

Terrible underdeveloped poorly written baddies I am sure you must mean. I dont see what is sympathetic about her.
There are really only two other characters of note in it, the other Doctor (who I like) and his assistant who is mainly background and doesnt have a fleshed out character so much as a description.

But worse of all is the terrible Cyber-King (where the hell did that idea come from? Cybermen have a single Cyber Controller that looks like an ordinary cyberman except you can see his brains- they dont make giant city stomping robots and call it a King, what would be the point, they dont need it to convert people, never had before never have since  Its a really stupid idea that looks really stupid on screen. Now youve made me crabbit just having to think about it again  )

I have to agree Petty, why did londoners seem so surprised to see spaceship's crash into Big Ben if A gaint robot and robot monkey people were stomping around 150 years earlier...

Still Paul Mcgann is seen onscreen briefly so that's a  

Although (this may be clutching at straws a bit if you ask me) he MIGHT have been featured in the extended 50th trailer (didn't look like it to me tho):

SPOILERS obviously
http://www.denofgeek.com/tv/doctor-who/28125/so-what-have-we-learned-from-the-doctor-who-trailers


And I'm up to The Web Planet in classic who...still good fun if rather cheap!

''why did londoners seem so surprised to see spaceship's crash into Big Ben if A gaint robot and robot monkey people were stomping around 150 years earlier...''

srsly do you really want me to take each Moffat episode and give a point by point 'why are Londoners surprised moment?' come ON!!

 

Well seeing as I haven't watched series 6 or 7a yet or watched any of tennant's stuff in ages either your lecture will probably be lost on me. 

The few brief times I have been London seem to suggest people are too busy being rude and walking very very fast to notice anything anyway...